Can expats vote in Malta? The complete 2026 guide

Short answer

In Malta, voting rights depend on who you are and which election is being held.

• EU citizens living in Malta can vote in local council and European Parliament elections.
• British nationals living in Malta can vote in local council elections — but not European ones.
• All other non-EU residents cannot vote in any Maltese election unless they naturalise.
• General (parliamentary) elections are reserved for Maltese citizens.

This guide explains who can vote, how registration actually works, and one trade-off that catches many EU expats by surprise. For the step-by-step registration process, see our separate guide: How to register for local elections in Malta.

Who's who: the four groups

"Resident" and "citizen" are not the same thing in Maltese electoral law. Four categories matter:

Malta has three elections — and three separate registers

This is the single most misunderstood thing about voting in Malta. There is not one electoral roll: there are three separate registers, and being on one does not automatically put you on another.

The three registers are:

1. The General Elections Electoral Register — Maltese citizens, aged 16+, who have resided in Malta for at least six months out of the previous eighteen. Anyone on this register is automatically entitled to vote in referenda, local council elections and European Parliament elections too.
2. The Local Councils Electoral Register — published in 68 volumes, one per locality. It lists Maltese citizens and EU citizens officially resident in Malta, aged 16+, holding a Maltese identity card or eResidence card. British nationals are also included (see below).
3. The European Union Electoral Register — non-Maltese EU citizens resident in Malta who have opted to vote in Malta for MEPs.

🇪🇺 If you are an EU expat

You get two of the three ballots.

✅ Local council elections — yes. You vote for the councillors in the locality where you are ordinarily resident, and you can also stand as a candidate. Note that in Malta you do not vote directly for the mayor: you elect councillors, and the mayor is determined from among them.

✅ European Parliament elections — yes, but you must choose. You can vote for Malta's 6 MEPs, or for your home country's MEPs. Not both. See the warning below — this decision is more consequential than it looks.

❌ General elections — no. Malta's national parliament is reserved for Maltese citizens. This is normal across the EU: national elections are a matter of national sovereignty, and EU law does not require member states to open them to other EU citizens.

⚠️ The trade-off that catches EU expats by surprise

If you register on Malta's European Union Electoral Register to vote for Malta's MEPs, you are renouncing your right to vote in the same election in your home country. The Electoral Commission notifies the electoral authority in your home member state, so that you cannot vote twice.

This is not a formality. It is a real and often permanent-feeling choice, and many people tick the box during their residence-card paperwork without registering what they are giving up.

Neither option is wrong. But make it deliberately:

• Vote in Malta if this is where you live, work and intend to stay — your MEPs should be the ones representing where your life actually is.
• Vote at home if you keep strong political ties there, or if your home country's MEP election matters more to you.

If you already chose and want to change, you can. The Electoral Commission publishes a form for exactly this — see the European Elections and Local Councils FAQ.

🇬🇧 If you are a British national — you can still vote locally

This surprises almost everyone, including many British residents themselves, who assume Brexit ended their vote.

It did not — not for local council elections.

British nationals resident in Malta and registered in the Local Councils Electoral Register are entitled to vote in local council elections, and to stand as candidates in them. The Electoral Commission of Malta lists eligible local-council candidates as "any EU citizen or a national of the UK registered as an elector in the Local Councils Electoral Register."

The reason is historical, and it predates the EU entirely. Between 1993 and 2003 — before Malta joined the EU — British citizens who met the qualifications in the Local Councils Act were already entitled to vote and stand in local council elections alongside Maltese electors. When Malta joined the EU in 2004, that right was extended to all EU nationals. It was never taken away from British nationals — so Brexit did not remove it.

British nationals cannot vote in European Parliament elections or in general elections.

💡 If you are British and living in Malta, check whether you are on the Local Councils Electoral Register. You may have a vote you did not know you had. You can check your registration online with your ID or eResidence card number, or use the official Electoral Office contact details below.

🌍 If you are any other non-EU expat — the real gap

If you are an American, Indian, Filipino, Serbian, Brazilian, Nigerian or any other third-country national living in Malta — on a work permit, Single Permit, or long-term residence status — you cannot vote in any Maltese election.

Not general. Not European. Not even local council — even though your local council decides things that land directly on your street: waste collection, road works, parking, community services, public spaces.

You pay tax. You pay social security. You have no ballot in any of it.

The only routes to a vote are:

1. Naturalise as a Maltese citizen (long residence, marriage, descent, or investment). This unlocks all three ballots.
2. Acquire another EU nationality, which would make you an EU expat for electoral purposes — local and European ballots.

This is the gap ExpatVoice exists to close. And notice something important: Malta already grants local voting rights to one non-EU nationality. The principle is not foreign to Maltese law. It is a question of who it is extended to.

🇲🇹 If you naturalise as a Maltese citizen

Once you hold Maltese citizenship, you have the same voting rights as anyone born Maltese: all three elections, including the general election. You must still be registered on the electoral register for your locality, and — for the general elections register — meet the residence requirement of six months out of the previous eighteen.

Malta permits dual citizenship. But your home country may not: naturalising as Maltese can, in some cases, mean losing your original citizenship, depending on that country's rules. Check before you apply.

How registration actually works

Here is where a lot of expat advice — including, until today, an earlier version of this guide — gets it wrong.

Registration is not a separate errand. You do not go to the Electoral Commission and fill in a special form.

It happens during your ID or residence card application. When you apply for your eIdentity Card or eResidence Card, you are given a form to register as a voter in the Local Councils Electoral Register, and you are asked whether you also want to be registered in the European Union Electoral Register for MEP elections.

To be precise: registration is not automatic in the sense that it happens without you — you do have to complete the form. But the form is put in front of you as part of the residence-card process. Applying for the card is the moment the registration happens.

Two practical consequences:

• ✅ If you completed those forms when you got your card, you may already be registered — even if you don't remember doing it. Check online with your ID or eResidence card number.
• ⚠️ If you skipped that section, or ticked the wrong box on the European Parliament option, you can fix it. Submit the form to the Electoral Commission — free of charge — at Evans Building, Merchant Street, Valletta, or hand it in at any local council office or police station.

Your registration follows your address. The register is updated when you change the address on your ID or eResidence card. If you move, update your card — otherwise you will still be registered in your old locality.

Deadlines

The Electoral Register is revised and published twice a year — in April and October.

To be safe, register (or correct your registration) before 31 March or before 30 September.

Deadlines around a called election work differently, and appeal deadlines are set by law each time. Always check the Electoral Commission website for the current dates rather than relying on any guide, including this one.

What ExpatVoice is working on

ExpatVoice is an independent, non-partisan civic initiative for expats in Malta. On voting rights, we are focused on three things:

1. Extending local voting rights to long-term non-EU residents. Malta already grants local council voting rights to a non-EU nationality — British nationals — and has done so since 1993. The principle is established in Maltese law. Several EU member states extend local voting rights to long-term third-country residents. We think Malta should too: if you live here, pay tax here, and your council decides what happens on your street, you should have a say in who sits on it.

2. Better information at the moment that matters. Voter registration happens inside the residence-card process — a moment when people are dealing with a lot of paperwork in a foreign language. Many EU citizens tick, or fail to tick, the European Parliament option without understanding that they are choosing between voting in Malta and voting at home. That choice deserves a clear explanation, in plain language, at the point it is made.

3. Clear, multi-language civic information from public authorities. So that nobody misses an election because the process was hidden behind jargon.

If this matters to you, the most useful thing you can do today takes 30 seconds: join the ExpatVoice community. Numbers are the only argument that reliably moves policy.

And if you have run into a problem with registration, your council, or your rights: tell us about it. Your report is encrypted in your browser — we cannot be compelled to reveal what we cannot read.

Sources — check the law yourself

• Electoral Commission of Malta — FAQs — the three electoral registers, eligibility, and how registration works.
• Electoral Commission of Malta — European Elections and Local Councils — registration for EU nationals, the MEP choice, and voting procedure.
• Electoral Commission of Malta — Elections — the historical basis of British nationals' local voting rights (1993–2003) and the 2004 extension to EU nationals.
• Electoral Commission of Malta — Who can contest an election — eligibility for EU citizens and UK nationals to stand in local council elections.
• Chapter 354, General Elections Act — primary legislation on general elections and the electoral register.
• Chapter 363, Local Councils Act — local council elections and voter eligibility.
• Directive 94/80/EC — EU rules on local voting rights for EU citizens resident outside their home country.

Contact the Electoral Office directly

📞 2558 3000
🌐 electoral.gov.mt — contact form on their website
📍 Evans Building, Merchant Street, Valletta

Corrections

Found an error in this guide? Tell us: hello@expatvoice.mt — we investigate every correction request and fix confirmed errors within 7 days. See our Editorial & Accuracy Policy for how we verify what we publish.

Disclaimer: This article is a plain-English summary for expats in Malta. It is not legal advice. Electoral rules can and do change. Always confirm your own situation with the Electoral Commission of Malta or a qualified professional before acting.